Week 37 - This American Life

As I wrote last week, my grandmother died on September 8.  The last time someone close to me died, I was a teenager.  And I forgot how strange grief can be.  I have a "day job" working retail.  I worked a long day Saturday.  The store was busy.  We were having a big sale.  Lots of people, lots of money being spent, lots of tempers frayed.  I thought I had been doing okay.  When I left work on Saturday night, I quite unexpectedly burst into tears as soon as I walked out the door.  I had to go sit on a bench in the town center and compose myself.  I didn't know why I was crying.  The customers had been difficult but no more so than they usually are.  I sat there and tried to examine why I was feeling the way I was.  I was suddenly angry.  I was angry at these customers, wasting a beautiful Saturday inside, buying clothing, complaining, badgering the staff.  My grandmother loved to garden.  This week has been full of days that she would have been happily gardening.  She didn't waste her life shopping.  She was a lovely person.  And now she was dead.  And I guess I was crying because it just seemed so unfair.

After I composed myself enough to drive myself home, I put my sunglasses on (to hide my red, weepy eyes.)  As I walked to my car, I passed by groups of people.  Young, old, children.  And I really looked at them.  I tried to meet their eyes, search for the humanity.  No one engaged with me.  No one engaged with each other.  Even the kids had smartphones that they were glued to.  No one smiled.

And I realized that my grandmother wasn't like those people.  She loved and appreciated life and people and dogs and flowers.  And I made a promise to myself, that I didn't want to be one of those people.

We talk a lot about having a "game face" in retail.  Smiling big, not letting the customers see you sweat, not getting angry even when people are making insane requests.  Keep smiling. The customer is always right. As I help people in my job, I would say 90% of the people can't even look me in the eye. When did we stop engaging with each other?  Week 37's play is about those people and is called This American Life.

Week 36 - Gramercy

This week, my grandmother died of complications from Alzheimer's disease.  She was 90.  It was expected. But, you never really do expect these things.  It's always a punch to the gut.  This week also happens to coincide with the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA.  I lived in New York City in 2001.  I watched the attacks happen from the roof of the apartment I was subletting in Williamsburg.  I've gotten to the point where I don't think about those strange days, but with all the media coverage every year around this time, it's kind of hard not to.  I've spent a lot of time this past week thinking about loss.  And memories.  And legacy.

This week's play is titled Gramercy and is a two-hander that takes place in Gramercy Park, in downtown Manhattan.  It's a private park that is only accessible by key, and it seemed a good place to set a play that is about the privacy (and primacy) of loss.

Week 35 - $7.47

This week's play was a hard one for me to get going on.  I have been finding that I have more difficulty getting started the week after I've written a play that I think is good.  I feel like I broke a lot of new creative ground with Triangle: 1911.  This week, in some ways, I felt like I was back to square one, back to trying to squeeze inspiration out of a small, already juiced orange.

I had actually been mulling over the idea for this week's play, $7.47, for a while now.  Prices are going up everywhere, on everything.  This week's play is the story of how one woman's revolt against the prices of personal products inspires those around her.

Weeks 33 and 34-Triangle: 1911

I doubled up this week and last week's play because I wanted to write a longer one-act than I usually do.  The title of this piece is Triangle: 1911 and it takes place during the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that happened in New York City.

The fire, which happened on March 25, 1911 was the deadliest workplace industrial disaster in the history of New York City up until the destruction of the World Trade Center 90 years later.  The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers and spurred massive reforms in labor laws throughout the country.  Most of the workers at the factory were young immigrant women between the ages of 18 and 23, although girls as young as 11 were reported to have worked there.

I've been interested in the fire for a long time.  I played around with different ways to frame the story such as focusing on the manslaughter trial of the two men who owned the factory, the fights between labor workers over whether to unionize, etc.  I finally decided to keep it simple and focus on the stories of the victims (and survivors) of the fire.  Before they were victims, they were real people.  Sometimes it's hard for people to grasp that.  I hope that this play humanizes these brave young workers.  

Week 31: The Date and Week 32: Lovely

Hola!  It's been an exciting couple of weeks in 52 Plays land.  Theatre Wagon of Virginia did a reading of four (count 'em, four!) of my plays this past weekend as part of their annual summer readings.  The actors performed Cat Talk, The Shakespearean Actor's Nightmare, The Night The Lights Went Out, and Scout's Honor.  It was SO helpful to hear these plays read out loud for the first time.  It was kind of amazing to see what worked (and what definitely didn't).  I did a talkback after the readings to discuss my process and answer questions from the audience and actors.  One of the questions I was asked was whether I go back and revise after my plays are written.  I've actually been holding back from doing that because I feel like it would interfere with composing new plays.  I am definitely a perfectionist and the wonderful thing about this project is that it has forced me not to dwell on all my mistakes, but move on to the next week and the next play.  I will go back at some point and revise several of the plays in this project, but for now, it's onward and upward.

Due to visiting friends and participating in play readings, my posting for last week and this week were delayed.  Week 31's play is The Date and Week 32's play is Lovely.  I chose to concentrate these past two weeks on writing short, two-handers.

Week 30 - Sarah's Bridal Shower

Hello from Week 30.  More than half the year has gone by.  Unreal, isn't it?  I feel like I just started this project yesterday and I'm already more than halfway through and have written 30 plays.

My blog is a little late this week because I helped host a bridal shower this weekend in Philadelphia for my sister Katie.  Everyone had a wonderful time at the shower and Katie (and her husband-to-be) got some really great gifts.  This week's play, Sarah's Bridal Shower, obviously was influenced by this week's goings-on but should not be construed as an account of what really happened at Katie's shower.  It is totally and completely fictional. :)  In this week's play,  bride-to-be Sarah gets a surprising gift from her little sister and everyone has an opinion about it...

Week 29-The Mercy Season

I've spent the last few days thinking a lot about forgiveness.  I will be honest here and say that there are certain people in my life that I have found myself unable to forgive.  Sometimes I worry about that.

Most of you are very aware of the movie theatre shooting that took place a few days ago at a midnight screening of the new Batman movie in Aurora, CO.  Even nowadays, despite the fact that we, as a society, are surrounded by violent movies, TV shows, comic books, video games, etc., there are still some instances of real-life violence that take our breath away.  People have spent the last few days debating the issue of gun control in this country, whether Hollywood is to blame, the state of the mental health system, etc.  What has struck me, for the last couple of days, are how many survivors have said publicly that someday they are sure that they will be able to forgive the man who shot them.

I, frankly, marvel at these people.  People who were just trying to enjoy a movie and suddenly found themselves, their friends, wounded and dying.  They make forgiveness seem easy.  But is it that easy?  Can it be that easy?

Week 29's play is The Mercy Season.  As a Trigger Warning, the play includes graphic descriptions of sexual violence and its aftermath.